Spreading the word of Mandarin
Maggie Chen is one of those energetic people who thrive in the world of business, always looking for ways to use her experience and share her talents. She hails from Taiwan and after graduating from Shih Chien University in Taipei with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and statistics, she joined IBM. But after a couple of years she was eager to start her own company and established Jordan Language School as owner and instructor as well as managing and designing the language curriculum.
In 1997, with her husband and children, she immigrated to Canada and settled in Vancouver and then Comox. Chen soon combined her education and business background to launch a school that soon had 15 teachers offering a Mandarin program for English-speaking adults while at the same time taking on the role as president of the Comox Valley Multicultural Association.
Her husband, who works in the oilpatch, was transferred to Calgary in 2005 and Chen decided to get back into accounting and took courses at both SAIT Polytechnic and Bow Valley College. Then she gained more experience in Canadian accounting by working with H&R Block at its Calgary head office. By 2007 Chen had started another company of her own.
CTL Accounting and Business Solutions began as a company that uses Chen’s 15 years of accounting and business experience to provide bookkeeping, income tax preparation, financial statements and business consulting.
It was rebranded in 2007 as CTL Business Group, with a separate international business consulting department, with offices in Calgary, Vancouver and Taipei providing business links with Canada and the U.S. to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and China. Chen says CTL has a good understanding of politics, culture and monetary variables, and advises on imports and exports, investment opportunities and setting up businesses in Asia.
And now that her daughter is away studying at university and her son is in Grade 12, Chen has added her love of language to her business equation.
She has enjoyed teaching Mandarin at the Calgary Chinese School but is now ready to promote her new Calgary Mandarin Language Training Centre.
The first courses will be held downtown in the Suncor Energy Centre beginning March 13. They have been customized to teach practical business and travel Mandarin, which is essential for those visiting Southeast Asia to be able to greet in Mandarin, handle simple communication and demonstrate familiarity with Chinese culture.
After Dan Overall made his recent move to Calgary from Winnipeg, he says he identified working with Calgary Economic Development as a “dream” job. He has his wish as he has already joined CED as its new vice-president of research, workforce and strategy.
Trained as a lawyer after spending nine years practising law, Overall has spent the past 14 years at the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, where he was responsible for setting and executing policy and communications, marketing and direction.
That gave him extensive experience in policy development, provision of economic data, identifying key economic trends, workforce development and liaison with all levels of government and other community stakeholders.
Moving from the Enviros Wilderness School Association to join Bethany Care Foundation as its new executive director, Carlene Chrumka wasted no time in hiring a senior fund development associate.
Trish Weatherup has accepted that position after leaving her role as director of development and communications at the Arthritis Society. The foundation is responsible for raising funds for the Bethany Care Society, which cares for about 5,400 seniors and people with disabilities in more than 100 facilities throughout the province.
Calgary-based softwareas-a-service provider Ivrnet has signed a letter of intent to acquire Neatworx Web Solutions, a privately held company whose proprietary software delivers webbased content management, registration, administration and payment solutions to sports clubs throughout North America.
Ivrnet president and CEO David Snell says he believes Neatworx will enhance the product services, sales and offerings of Itsportsnet, which Ivrnet acquired last year, adding online features such as camp registrations, birthday bookings and recreational class registrations to its product offerings.
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